Which of the Tellius games do you like the best?!

[Lakmé]

Micaiah had the best character development in the whole series, going from "poisoning the enemy is terrible" to "let's set them on fiiirrreeee!".

Therefore, Radiant Dawn.

Edited January 27, 2013 by Lakmé

[Missile]

Radiant Dawn because the story was surprising especially in part 3 (and becomes a bit shitty in part 4), the gameplay fixes a lot of mistakes from PoR and the third tier is sexy.

BUT WHERE ARE THE SUPPORTS ??? WHY MAGIC SUCKS ??? :/

[Aether911]

Like said above, FE10 is better gameplay-wise, but I really have more fun playing FE9, with good characters and all.

[Agility]

I vote POR, Simply because I enjoyed it better.

[VincentASM]

FE9 for me; it's an instant classic and I believe I've beaten it 5 times now. I will say it took some getting used to, because the gameplay is slightly slower paced compared to the previous games that, and you could fast forward emulators.

FE10 is pretty good though and I'm finally starting to appreciate it. My favourite thing about the game is the ability to totally skip battle animations (and then the DS FEs totally improved on this) ^^

[ClLoulD]

I liked RD more simply because BEXP abuse changed and a lot more variation but most of all swapping skills from one character to another!

[Loki Laufeyson]

I'm a film student focusing on scriptwriting. All the plot holes in FE10 hurt my soul if I look at them for too long.

Ergo, FE9.

Yiss. The writing pitfalls and lack of full on supports makes RD a bit less awesome than PoR. With some story tweakage and PoR's support style, RD would have been perfect. Cuz it did do the skills much better and it was longer. But yeah, PoR is still my favorite out of both of those games.

[whase]

FE9 for best story and character development

FE10 for best gameplay and graphics.

guess I'll vote for FE10

[NinjaMonkey]

FE10, since it has better gameplay and I thought that its story was a lot more interesting than FE9's cliched plot, especially since you get to see it from different points of view.

With some story tweakage and PoR's support style,

Considering characters constantly leave your party throughout the game, this would be a very bad idea. Take Ilyana for instance: She joins the Dawn Brigade in 1-4 and then leaves after 1-E is concluded. The next time that we see her she's joined up with the Greil Mercenaries in 3-2. How could you make the PoR-style system of supports work in this instance?

Edited February 10, 2013 by NinjaMonkey

[Sykil]

FE9 for best story and character development

FE10 for best gameplay and graphics.

guess I'll vote for FE10

More or less how I feel about it.

FE9 was much better written, but FE10 has much more replay value. I find myself replaying FE10 more, but it's not necessarily because I dislike FE9.

Also, the opening cinematic for Part III of FE10 is amazing. Probably my favorite Fire Emblem moment.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Sykil

[Faye]

Radiant Dawn, because DAMN Sothe is suddenly tall and hot. I really liked the Dawn Brigade, it's a shame FE10 admittedly lacked in the character development department. D8 But I very much enjoyed FE10 over FE9.

[shadykid]

I cannot stand watching map animations in FE9.

This alone ruins the game for me.

yup

freaking map animations man, RD's no animation setting made it look even worse in comparison (even if enemy density got ridiculous in lategame)

also God Haar

[shadowofchaos]

I want someone to hack FE10 and use FE9's story.

FE10 made it fun to play. FE9 had a story that kept me going with the support conversations that developed the characters I was interested in.

I'm sorry to say, but FE10's story and generic support conversations made me want to puke.

It is my personal opinion that the gameplay was great and the animations were pretty (especially in Dolphin HD) for FE10, but that's the only appeal it had for me.

I want to hack the hell out of it and remake FE9. SO MUCH. The character models are there. The graphics are there. The problems are the special classes like Ashnard and Lord Ike. and the first tier class models for 2nd tier FE10 units.

Obviously, I'm voting for FE9.

Edited February 22, 2013 by shadowofchaos

[Florete]

It is my personal opinion that the gameplay was great and the animations were pretty (especially in Dolphin HD) for FE10, but that's the only appeal it had for me.

You say its only appeal was its gameplay (and animations) like that isn't the most important aspect of a video game.

[shadowofchaos]

You say its only appeal was its gameplay (and animations) like that isn't the most important aspect of a video game.

Story for me is much more of a draw.

I'm a crybaby.

FE13 made me cry of how beautiful it is. FE10 made me cry out of sheer confusion.

You're talking to the guy that is a sap with VNs like Clannad.

Edited February 22, 2013 by shadowofchaos

[Florete]

I mean, I cried even on my 3rd time through Clannad After Story, but while the ending was emotional for me, both PoR's and Awakening's stories didn't grab me nearly as well as Radiant Dawn's. I've gone through RD's story twice, heard the complaints, and still don't get why people find it so bad.

When you combine that with the fact that RD does every single aspect of gameplay better, I don't see how PoR can ever be considered a better game.

But that's just me.

[shadowofchaos]

When you combine that with the fact that RD does every single aspect of gameplay better, I don't see how PoR can ever be considered a better game.

But that's just me.

And I can respect that.

Everyone's tastes aren't the same. That's what makes things interesting

Awakening's grabbed me on particular moments. The music and rain kind of made the atmosphere super effective and memorable for me on Chapter 10.

FE9's CG when Ike rallies the troops the sort of the same for me.

FE10 did not do anything like that for me.

[Topaz Light]

Many much the ninth.

I adore Path of Radiance's story (probably my favorite Fire Emblem game, story-wise), and it also has the support conversations and character depth Radiant Dawn lacks, for the most part, as a result of it dropping said support conversations. (What it has doesn't really count, as it captures none of the character-developement goodness FE6~9+12 & 13's supports have) I don't much like the effects of Radiant Dawn's Parts setup on the usability first-tier units, so for that reason and the aforementioned lack of support conversations Path of Radiance wins over its sequel.

That and NoA trollishly relabling the difficulties to guilt me into playing what is actually designed as a Hard mode.

Edited February 22, 2013 by Starlight36

[BrightBow]

When you combine that with the fact that RD does every single aspect of gameplay better, I don't see how PoR can ever be considered a better game.

But that's just me.

I heavily contest that statement. To be perfectly honest, I think that Radiant Dawn has actually the messiest gameplay in the series. I think that Radiant Dawn's gameplay is all kinds of messy.

I mean, it's often downright absurd. In the cases of way too many units, you are left wondering what you are even supposed to do with them.

Like, when you get Lethe, you get the impression that she is underpowered. And then you find out that despite this, she doesn't get any exp from killing enemies, so she can't even realistically get any stronger. All the while Mordecai hits like a truck and takes no damage despite being 5 levels lower and actually getting exp from it. But the dragons are definitely the worst, considering you would associate dragons with immense power.

And the dissonance between Ike's group and Miciah's group is insane. Ike and Co are way stronger then Micaiah's group is at the end of their campaign while they are only at the very beginning of their campaign. And that's not even counting the fact that Ike has plenty of leadership and has way more units at his disposal AND can even recruit people from Micaiah's already small group.

Ike can burst through his chapters with little effort while Micaiah has to munchkin like crazy in order to get at least one or two of her units to be valuable contributers in part 4. And while it's certainly entertaining to play against the odds like that, it makes Ike's chapters all the more boring by comparison.

Besides that, Masteries are also completely nonsensical (I was son confused when the BK appeared. The numbers didn't make any sense then and never did during the course of the whole game.) and leave you wondering why IS didn't just make them instant kills. Not to mention that the ones that actually fail to reliable kill are the ones from the already hilariously underpowered mages and thieves.

And despite being essentially a Lord, Micaiah can't use S-Rank weapon easily because she only promotes at the very end.

Normally this isn't a problem because Lord's get their own personal weapon... except her for some reason. Not that it matters, seeing how weak magic is and Nosferatu and Thani are more beneficial then Rexaura anyway, but it's just all kinds of awkward. And it's not helped by the fact that Rexaura isn't exactly heavily contested.

In short, I think that the game feels all kinds of messy, unfinished and unpolished. And that it is far from an improvement over PoR.

Edit: Also, I think that without the support conversations, the FE5 support system is just so much better. I mean, units could give and receive support boosts without having to be deployed on half of the maps in the game. It gave you a reason to actually deploy some units you wouldn't even consider otherwise and went a long way to help individualize characters.

Edited February 22, 2013 by BrightBow

[Integrity]

And despite being essentially a Lord, Micaiah can't use S-Rank weapon easily because she only promotes at the very end.

Normally this isn't a problem because Lord's get their own personal weapon... except her for some reason. Not that it matters, seeing how weak magic is and Nosferatu and Thani are more beneficial then Rexaura anyway, but it's just all kinds of awkward. And it's not helped by the fact that Rexaura isn't exactly heavily contested.

Thani's a PRF weapon, dude.

[BrightBow]

Thani's a PRF weapon, dude.

Well... yes. I was speaking of personal weapons on the level of S-Rank weapons.

And Thani is her equivalent of the Rapier and not her equivalent of the Falchion.

[Integrity]

Well... yes. I was speaking of personal weapons on the level of S-Rank weapons.

And Thani is her equivalent of the Rapier and not her equivalent of the Falchion.

Ah, gotcha. Misunderstood.

[Florete]

I mean, it's often downright absurd. In the cases of way too many units, you are left wondering what you are even supposed to do with them.

I didn't say it was perfect. But on this point, your team gets divided into three. That's what you do with them.

And since when is a large cast any kind of problem?

Like, when you get Lethe, you get the impression that she is underpowered. And then you find out that despite this, she doesn't get any exp from killing enemies, so she can't even realistically get any stronger. All the while Mordecai hits like a truck and takes no damage despite being 5 levels lower and actually getting exp from it. But the dragons are definitely the worst, considering you would associate dragons with immense power.

When you first get Lethe (2-2), she performs quite well, so I don't know what you mean there. Yes, Lethe isn't a very good unit, but you want me to point to many similar cases in any FE game?

In this case, Mordecai is surely better, but without really knowing how to use him, he isn't all that special, either. He never doubles, so he has a hard time both killing and getting Strike rank up and falls behind before part 3 is even over. And if you argue knowing how to use him better, Lethe can be fixed, too; but that's a point for later.

And the dissonance between Ike's group and Miciah's group is insane. Ike and Co are way stronger then Micaiah's group is at the end of their campaign while they are only at the very beginning of their campaign. And that's not even counting the fact that Ike has plenty of leadership and has way more units at his disposal AND can even recruit people from Micaiah's already small group.

Ike can burst through his chapters with little effort while Micaiah has to munchkin like crazy in order to get at least one or two of her units to be valuable contributers in part 4. And while it's certainly entertaining to play against the odds like that, it makes Ike's chapters all the more boring by comparison.

This makes sense in context of the story considering Daein is still trying to rebuild itself and their army is very undermanned. The only reason they're even in the war is because they've been forced. Yes, it's a bit of an imbalance, but since the likes of Paragon and Beastfoe are free to move around, it isn't that big of a deal.

Besides that, Masteries are also completely nonsensical (I was son confused when the BK appeared. The numbers didn't make any sense then and never did during the course of the whole game.) and leave you wondering why IS didn't just make them instant kills. Not to mention that the ones that actually fail to reliable kill are the ones from the already hilariously underpowered mages and thieves.

Better than 90% of masteries being absolutely useless in PoR.

And despite being essentially a Lord, Micaiah can't use S-Rank weapon easily because she only promotes at the very end.

And you can buy like 10 Arms Scrolls at that point if it's really so important to you that she uses Rexaura.

And all this time you never mentioned what makes PoR good or better.

In short, I think that the game feels all kinds of messy, unfinished and unpolished. And that it is far from an improvement over PoR.

Think about the following:

BEXP - Enormously riggable in PoR. RD's +3 stats for BEXP does both fix that and create a bit of a new problem when capping stats, but this is only very noticeable on lower difficulties.

Laguz - Very hard to use well in PoR due to no control over their transformation and being locked to one weapon MT the whole game. RD introduces Olivi Grass, more Laguz Stones, manual transformations, and Strike WExp.

Shops - PoR having random selections is really awkward. RD fixes it by just adding higher level stuff, and the bargains are also a nice touch.

Animations - Oh my God the PoR map animations that alone have probably added 2+ hours to my gameplay time on that. Plus even the full animations are very dull in comparison to RD's.

Music - RD pretty much has the best soundtrack in the series (although I have found Awakening's is also quite good).

Battle Save - Just makes the game a lot easier to play and less reset-intensive, especially since RD is harder in general

Balance - The biggest one. People tend to think RD is horribly balanced, but it's actually very well balanced compared to most FE games. No one unit dominates over the half the game like Titania or Seth, and when extremely powerful units do exist, they're spread out and generally very limited; the idea of "soloing" is basically non-existent. DB part 1 and part 3 actually encourage you to use weaker units alongside the stronger units it gives you, and most, if not all weaker units can be brought up to par with your better units via BEXP and the like.

Conversely, in PoR, Titania wrecks the first half of the game and is still up to par for the 2nd half. Otherwise, any mounted unit is overpowered and the majority of foot units are all just equally useless. Even if you pump someone like Rolf with BEXP and kills, he'll just never be good because of his class. And weapon level.

At the end of the day, if you take out the matters of plot and character, RD wins everywhere unless team switching is really a huge deal to you. Which I understand it can be, but at the same time, the "team building" idea is far from removed.

EDIT: Some more:

-The 7 item inventory of RD > 4/4 inventory split of PoR. (Laguz don't use the weapon side except for random storage and Beorc don't usually need 4 random items)

-Atk/hit/crit is actually displayed during battles in RD. RD also tells you what activates when something activates.

-WExp bars so you can know much more is needed for a weapon level only exists in RD.

-Support building is based on many things, like deployment and actions in RD, as opposed to just being deployment-based in PoR, which puts absolutely no thought into building supports.

Edited February 22, 2013 by Red Fox of Fire

[BrightBow]

At the end of the day, if you take out the matters of plot and character, RD wins everywhere unless team switching is really a huge deal to you. Which I understand it can be, but at the same time, the "team building" idea is far from removed.

Look, I am not really contesting that the gameplay is really worse. But I think that Radiant Dawn often just feels very unfinished to a degree that PoR simply doesn't share, so I find it to be awkward to play. Like, nothing in PoR really compared to the nonsensicalness of Lethe being as weak as a low level second tier units while being treated as a third tier unit for exp calculation or skills that deal 200 points despite there being no enemy that even comes close to possibly surviving it even before having an additional effect attached to it. It isn't "entirely" absurd to consider PoR the better game even if one doesn't value it's story and characterization anywhere as much as I do.

Which is really all I wanted to say. I have absolutely no idea why I spend so much time writing so much text, while actually leaving out the part that was actually important, in order to contest a trivial detail about a statement that isn't in any way worth arguing over, as a result wasting the time of somebody who just so happens to be a moderator which naturally might have significant negative results for me in the future.

So, I am sorry that I wasted your time with this, Red Fox.

I am going to put all that other stuff I wrote in the last two hours to address all your points in that spoiler tag but it's really just a bunch of nonsense. It's not in any way worth looking into it unless you think that I didn't try addressing your points.

I didn't say it was perfect. But on this point, your team gets divided into three. That's what you do with them.

And since when is a large cast any kind of problem?

I'm sorry. That came out wrong.

I mean, all the units that are next to unfixable. Like Fiona, who not only takes an inhumanly effort to raise but there is no point in it because every map handicaps her. Or Tormod, who comes mercilessly underleveled with only average growths and an awful class. Which reminds me, it's kinda funny how Tormod gets updated equipment in that chapter, but IS couldn't bother to auto-level him a bit.

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When you first get Lethe (2-2), she performs quite well, so I don't know what you mean there. Yes, Lethe isn't a very good unit, but you want me to point to many similar cases in any FE game?

I dare to say that she is very unique. Sure, there are other weak units but even the likes of Wendy or Sophia will at least get experience for a kill. Lethe doesn't. She only gets 1 exp for each kill as if she was highly overleveld. And yet she is as weak as Nephenee, except she doesn't have to worry about a gauge. I'm sorry, but that makes no sense.

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This makes sense in context of the story considering Daein is still trying to rebuild itself and their army is very undermanned. The only reason they're even in the war is because they've been forced. Yes, it's a bit of an imbalance, but since the likes of Paragon and Beastfoe are free to move around, it isn't that big of a deal.

That imbalance is hardly intended. When you fight Daein's army, the average grunt actually has a higher level then most of the members of the Dawn Brigade.

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Better than 90% of masteries being absolutely useless in PoR.

Arguable. First of, only Roar is useless. Pretty much everything else just has the trouble that they are outdamaged by a mere Adept skill. But considering said skill can only taught ones, they still have their use for everyone with the needed capacity.

In general, they feel a lot less messy then the RD ones.

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And you can buy like 10 Arms Scrolls at that point if it's really so important to you that she uses Rexaura.

And all this time you never mentioned what makes PoR good or better.

It's not. It's just less awkward.

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Think about the following:

BEXP - Enormously riggable in PoR. RD's +3 stats for BEXP does both fix that and create a bit of a new problem when capping stats, but this is only very noticeable on lower difficulties.

Except that it kinda defeats the point of using it on units in need of training. The ones that start at lower level but are intended to make up for it with good growths.

And while the PoR system could be abused by save scumming, Radiant Dawn evens it out by adding battle saves which do the same thing during the chapter.

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Laguz - Very hard to use well in PoR due to no control over their transformation and being locked to one weapon MT the whole game. RD introduces Olivi Grass, more Laguz Stones, manual transformations, and Strike WExp.

And in exchange to that, they get no exp, despite often being weak. And cats don't even get player phase since they have to eat grass.

While the Laguz in PoR are universally decent fighters. The only thing that feels awkward there, is the lack of Laguz stones.

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Shops - PoR having random selections is really awkward. RD fixes it by just adding higher level stuff, and the bargains are also a nice touch.

PoR is hardly awkward here. That's how it has been in almost all games. It's just that shops are usually one the map. Not that I disagree that Radiant Dawn is superior here.

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Animations - Oh my God the PoR map animations that alone have probably added 2+ hours to my gameplay time on that. Plus even the full animations are very dull in comparison to RD's.

I never turn them off, so I don't really care to be honest. But that the Radiant Dawn ones are superior should be a given, since the Wii is the more powerful console.

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Music - RD pretty much has the best soundtrack in the series (although I have found Awakening's is also quite good).

I got to disagree here. Radiant Dawn has an amazing Soundtrack but Path or Radiance has plenty of songs that are very powerful and emotional. Also for some reason, the game uses

Which also reminds me of another oddity in Radiant Dawn: There are tons of songs that are played in the game but aren't in the Sound Test. Another one is hat the game plays "Finale in Fear" for the boss fights against Micaiah and Ike... except they somehow forgot that the song is actually no boss theme, so it only plays on the enemy phase.

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Battle Save - Just makes the game a lot easier to play and less reset-intensive, especially since RD is harder in general

Personally I disagree but If you really think so, then you can't really complain that the PoR Bexp system can be cheated by saving and loading. Also, Radiant Dawn isn't harder. They just renamed the difficulties and removed Maniac from PoR during localization.

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Balance - The biggest one. People tend to think RD is horribly balanced, but it's actually very well balanced compared to most FE games. No one unit dominates over the half the game like Titania or Seth, and when extremely powerful units do exist, they're spread out and generally very limited; the idea of "soloing" is basically non-existent. DB part 1 and part 3 actually encourage you to use weaker units alongside the stronger units it gives you, and most, if not all weaker units can be brought up to par with your better units via BEXP and the like.

No, it is absolutely horrible balanced.

-Magic has no power and enemies have tons of resistance, negating any advantage they would have by targeting RES, while every other stat they have is inferior as usual. And they are the ones who also have the bad masteries.

-The game often treats Laguz as overleveled despite them being weak.

-The playable dragons are complete pushovers. Ena in particular has trouble to even scratch enemies. And they don't actually have strike levels.

-The Mercs are absurdly overpowered.

-Leadership does nothing but make the easiest chapters in the game even easier and the hardest harder.

-There are tons of units with Leadership but only few of them every lead an army.

-Btw, you can't possibly justify this, saying that they represent their theoretical leadership in case they were leaders. Because if that's what it represents, then where are the Leadership stars of Tanith, Sigrun and Micaiah?

-And of course, the complete number insanity with the masteries. Some of them have even additional effects attached to them, even though it's impossible for them to fail a kill.

-Battle conversations between PCs are nearly impossible to archive unless you devote your whole strategy towards it.

-4E is a rout map, which requires you to kill an defenseless old man as a result. It's hardly intended that way, considering that there is an unused script for sparing him.

The only reason that there is no unit who dominates half the game is because no unit is even playable for that long. While playable, units like Haar and Ike will kill and destroy anything in their sight.

And while this might not work on hard mode, remember that the hardest difficulty was removed from PoR.

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Conversely, in PoR, Titania wrecks the first half of the game and is still up to par for the 2nd half. Otherwise, any mounted unit is overpowered and the majority of foot units are all just equally useless. Even if you pump someone like Rolf with BEXP and kills, he'll just never be good because of his class. And weapon level.

The only reason that his doesn't happen in Radiant Dawn, is because no unit is even around for half the game. By the time they are, Ike, Haar, Gatrie and Shinon do a good job at completely obliterating everything while being essentially invincible.

That might not be the case in hard mode, but again: PoR merely got it's highest difficulty removed during localization. No idea how Titania would perform there. And of course, nobody dominates the Dawn Brigade chapter because again they are so underpowered that even the strongest are merely average. And the advantage of mounts doesn't really matter since turns are a infinite resource. Also, Rolf's situation isn't anywhere as insane as the ones from Meg, Fiona and Lyre. He has potential to catch up with everyone and plenty of time to do so.

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EDIT: Some more:

-The 7 item inventory of RD > 4/4 inventory split of PoR. (Laguz don't use the weapon side except for random storage and Beorc don't usually need 4 random items)

-Atk/hit/crit is actually displayed during battles in RD. RD also tells you what activates when something activates

-WExp bars so you can know much more is needed for a weapon level only exists in RD.

1. Yes, definitely better.

2 and 3. Considering those numbers were displayed like that in every game so far (Except FE5 for WEXP), the fact that they are missing in PoR is clearly a deliberate design decision. Admittedly, in case of WXP, it's not a good one.

But I absolutely love the lack of displayed numbers during battles. It adds a lot to the tension.

Also, PoR does show activated skills. And unlike Radiant Dawn, it even shows the stat growth of Resolve.

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At the end of the day, if you take out the matters of plot and character, RD wins everywhere unless team switching is really a huge deal to you. Which I understand it can be, but at the same time, the "team building" idea is far from removed.

No, it doesn't win everywhere.

-The difficulty curve is insane thanks to the imbalance between teams.

-Mages were weak in PoR but not even close to the joke they were in Radiant Dawn.

-There are no units who are in such a bad position as Meg, Fiona, Lyre, Tormod and Vika. Because Rolf actually has time to dig himself out of his hole. Sure, there is no point bothering but the same goes for those I mentioned.

-And Dragons were actually powerful. Not very useful thanks to being slow but very imposing when put next to Ena in Radiant Dawn who can barely scratch enemies.

-And completely insane Masteries, designed to defeat theoretical fifth tier units as opposed to Masteries who are merely slightly underpowered.

[Murdok Dracul]

Generally, I tend to think of the two games as parts of the same whole. I can't play Radiant Dawn without first going through Path of Radiance, and I can't play PoR without moving on to RD afterwards. RD, to me, is better in terms of gameplay mechanics and story, but said story is only worth playing through if you've already finished PoR. If you play PoR first, the lack of support conversations isn't a huge problem because most units will have had their characterisation already via PoR's supports, and the game's story is very fleshed out anyway.

I've picked RD, but I think it's only better than PoR if PoR is played before it, so that you understand and appreciate all of the story.

The only issue I actually have with RD, and it's a small one, is that the Dawn Brigade (besides main characters and PoR veterans) and Vika are lacking in personality, due to the absence of support conversations. I used Vika in my last playthrough because she's sexy she still manages to be interesting, but I have yet to use any other new characters from Part 1 because they're simply boring. I just get Micaiah and Sothe to double up and take everyone out in the first few chapters.

About Lethe and Mordecai, I haven't trained either in RD (though I've used Lyre who surprisingly is very good - don't listen to her haters), so I can't say I know how well they perform in general (though I agree the matter of exp is a bit confusing), but I do know that Mordecai is the perfect meat shield for distracting the Black Knight in Chapter 3-7. At his base level, he can survive 2 Alondite hits from a crazy-strong 3rd tier boss unit.